DoorDash marketing at a glance
DoorDash offers marketing tools to help you reach more customers and get more orders. Compare your options to find the right fit for your goals.
Marketing tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
Automatically tailors promotions to your customers using your store data and DoorDash insights. | Growing your repeat customer base and maximizing sales with less hands-on management. | |
Features your business in high-traffic places on DoorDash. | Helping more customers see your business and increasing orders and sales. | |
Uses customizable promotions to encourage customers to order and spend more per order. | Increasing orders during slower periods, getting customers to try new items, or encouraging more orders of specific items. |
1. What are Smart Campaigns?
Smart Campaigns use your store data and DoorDash insights to automatically tailor promotions to each customer, helping you win over new and lapsed customers and keep existing customers coming back. Every Smart Campaign includes Spend x, get y. Buy one, get one free promotions are also included by default, but you can customize the eligible menu items or opt out of BOGO entirely.
Smart Campaigns may be a good fit if you want to:
Grow your repeat customer base and long-term customer value
Maximize sales from your marketing
Save time by automatically optimizing promotions for your customers
How do I set up a Smart Campaign?
You don't need marketing expertise to get started. Smart Campaigns automatically manage and optimize your promotions, simplifying campaign setup.
In the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing > Run a campaign.
In the Smart Campaign tile, select Create campaign.
Review the promotions included in your Smart Campaign. Spend x, get y is always included. You can customize which items are included in your Buy one, get one free promotion or opt out of BOGO entirely.
Choose the stores where you want to run your campaign.
Choose the campaign duration. If you want to help maximize sales and build a broad, loyal customer base, consider selecting Keep it going.
Choose your campaign schedule. Continuous runs your campaign all day during your store's open days and hours.
Set your average weekly budget. If you want to maximize potential orders, consider selecting No cap on average weekly budget.
Add a campaign name, review your details, then select Create campaign.
What to measure
Once your Smart Campaign is running, you can track:
Campaign sales and spend
New and lapsed customers acquired
Customer reorder rate
Customer long-term value
See what Smart Campaigns can do for your business
Merchants using Smart Campaigns see a 20% sales boost and 30% more new customers.*
In its first nine months using Smart Campaigns, Pubbelly Sushi generated more than $330K in sales and 4.5K+ customer orders.
"Once we let Smart Campaigns run the BOGOs, they performed better than when we were managing them manually. It adapts based on what guests respond to and what works best for Pubbelly Sushi — and I can set it one time and focus on operations."
2. What are Sponsored Listings?
Sponsored Listings feature your business in high-traffic places across DoorDash, including the homepage and relevant search results, helping more customers see your business and place an order. Unlike other platforms, you only pay when your ad results in an order — not for clicks or impressions.
Sponsored Listings may be a good fit if you want to:
Help more customers discover your business
Get noticed when you’re new to DoorDash or opening a new location
Increase orders and sales
How do I create a Sponsored Listing?
In the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing > Run a campaign.
In the Advertise to customers tile, select Create ad.
Select the stores where you want to run your campaign.
Choose your audience. If you want to reach everyone within your business's delivery radius, consider selecting All Customers.
Choose your campaign duration. If you want to help maximize sales and build a broad, loyal customer base, consider selecting Keep it going.
Choose your campaign schedule. Continuous runs your ad all day during your store's open days and hours.
Set your average weekly budget by choosing how much you want to spend on average each week. As you adjust your budget, you'll see estimated weekly costs, sales, and return on ad spend.
Choose your bid strategy. Consider Automatic bidding if you want DoorDash to automatically set the most competitive bid for you.
Choose your expanded ad reach settings. You can opt in to expanded ad reach to allow your ad to appear on partner platforms like Facebook and Instagram to maximize reach.
Add a campaign name, review your details, then select Create campaign.
What to measure
Once your Sponsored Listings campaign is running, you can track:
Campaign sales and spend
Campaign impressions
Campaign orders
Return on ad spend
See what Sponsored Listings can do for your business
On average, businesses earn $6 for every $1 spent on ads over one month, and more than 45% of orders from ads on DoorDash come from new customers.**
Farmhouse Kitchen runs Sponsored Listings across all of its locations. Since launching its campaign in August 2024, the business has earned nearly $150,000 in sales from Sponsored Listings, with a 6.17x return on ad spend.
3. What are Promotions?
Promotions give customers more reasons to choose your business, place an order, and spend more per order. You can choose from different promotion types and customize them to fit your business goals.
Promotions may be a good fit if you want to:
Increase orders during slower periods
Get more customers to try new menu items
Encourage more orders of specific items
What types of Promotions can I run?
Item promotion: Buy One, Get One Free; free or discounted items; Lunch specials; Happy Hour
Order discount: Spend x, get y; Lunch specials; Happy Hour
Free delivery: Offer customers free delivery on eligible orders
How do I create a Promotion?
In the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing > Run a campaign.
Choose the promotion type that fits your goal: Item promotion, Order discount, or Free delivery, then select Create promo.
Choose the specific promotion you want to run, where applicable.
Under Selected stores, choose where you want to run your promotion.
Choose your customer incentive, then select your audience. If you're running a Spend x, get y promotion, consider Smart Targeting to reach the customers most valuable to your business.
Choose your promotion duration. If you want to help maximize sales and build a broad, loyal customer base, consider selecting Keep it going.
Choose your promotion schedule. Consider selecting Continuous to run your promotion all day during your store's open days and hours.
Set your average weekly budget, where applicable. If you want to maximize potential orders, consider No cap on average weekly budget. Depending on the promotion type, you may also see estimated costs, sales, or return on ad spend as you adjust your settings.
Add a campaign name, review your details, then select Create campaign.
What to measure
Once your promotion is running, you can track:
Campaign sales and spend
Campaign orders
Return on ad spend
Review your campaign performance
To see how your campaigns are performing, log in to the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing, select Campaigns, then choose a campaign to view its performance.
For a deeper look at these metrics, head to Understanding Your Campaign Performance Reports.
Start growing with DoorDash marketing
Choose the marketing tool that fits your goals and start reaching more customers and getting more orders.
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